Sharing my au pair experience

10 months in New Zealand! This opportunity was a very interesting thought for a Swedish girl like me, who had only travelled in Europe before. I was very keen see something new and to me, becoming an au pair was a way I was interested in trying.

The decision for me to go to New Zealand and choosing my host family was very spontaneous, we found each other on au pair world and emailed for a bit and after a week, we spoke on the phone and decided that I would fly over mid-august, which was a month ahead. I didn’t have any experience with children but I am not a big worrier so I just decided to go with the flow, apply for the visa, book my ticket and just go.

My advice is to be open-minded as far as what country you want to go to and what kind of family you are looking for. Things like that cannot be measured on paper and with a positive outlook on things, everything will turn out great. I didn’t know anything about New Zealand, and now I’m absolutely in love with the country. And I would never have guessed I would be able to take care of 3 little boys but I definitely surprised myself.

Two 12 hour flights (with a 14 hour long stopover in Bangkok) took me from northern Sweden to Auckland, so after almost two days I got to meet the family and see my new home for the next 10 months. The boys (3,5 and 7 years old) were very intense and happy to see me, I was a bit overwhelmed at how hectic had been and this was only my first day! Maybe I should have been a bit more worried before I left!

I quickly got into the routine though. After a few weeks I was very used to dealing with kids, preparing lunchboxes for the kids (and remembering what sandwich spread each boy had on his sandwich!), reading stories for the kids, bike-riding, baking, jumping on the trampoline, playing at the beach, watching kid shows and getting the theme songs stuck to my head, helping the kids with homework, telling them off when needed, comforting them and of course lots of cuddles. The list can be made very long, but my days definitely revolved around the kids and helping around in the house.

I worked about 6 hours/day with taking care of the kids, as well as doing laundry, a little bit of cleaning and helping out at dinner. It was definitely not overwhelming and I shared a lot of the work with my host mum, who was a rock throughout the year. Of course folding laundry was not my favourite thing to do at the end of the day, and dealing with stubborn children babysitting on a Saturday night when you would rather be going out are not the things I would count as my favourite during the year but there will definitely be negative experiences throughout the year, but the are definitely outweighed by the positive ones, that’s how I feel and that’s also what I’ve heard from my au pair friends.

The thing I appreciated most was the relationships that developed with everyone in the family and how the people around very much became your second family. I got along very well with the parents in the family and I was fortunate to have good relationships with the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins as well.

Before I went to New Zealand my biggest worry was that it would be hard to find friends, since I didn’t know anyone and in my job I would only see the family and not meet new people. Fortunately I was lucky enough to find the greatest group of friends I could ever wish for. Auckland, like any bigger city, has many families with au pairs and that was how I first got into meeting people outside the family. My second day, still very jet-lagged, I followed a girl living a few streets away from me to a movie night at another au pair’s house and that was my first encouter with some people that would be by my side for my whole stay in Auckland. Meeting people is so easy!

I met so many cool people, au pairs, New Zealanders and travellers. If you live in a smaller city, an easy way to meet people would be go join a group of some sort like a sports team, take an arts class, language course, or just talk to people on the bus! Take my word for it when I say you will not have to worry about being alone. Since most of the au pairs had lots of free time we spent as much time as we could together. During summer we would go to the beach when we could, but we would often just meet up for a cup of coffee, a walk or catching the bus to downtown. I got to live my everyday life in Auckland, and I also travelled all around New Zealand. I went on a skiing holiday with the family, as well as to their two holiday homes, we spent christmas in one of them. I also went on a 3 week roadtrip in a van with 6 other girls, during the school holidays when the parents were at home as well.

An extraordinary experience was when I went to Fiji with 3 au pair friends and another friend who was from New Zealand! It was definitely one of the many highlights during my year abroad. I spent a lot of money, pretty much all of my savings were gone when I get back but I lived the most awesome life there.

I stayed for 10 months, which was my plan from the start. I could have stayed 10 more and stayed completely happy but I was missing my family and it was time for me to start university. Saying goodbye was very hard but we all knew I was not meant to stay there for longer and in a way it felt good to feel so sad, because it meant that our relationship had grown very strong and I knew just how much I loved this family. I had added 5 people to my family, which I know sounds cheesy but it is so true! I think about them every day and we try to skype as much as we can, only last week I received 2 postcards from them that they has sent me from Disneyland!

I would recommend going abroad to work as an au pair to anyone, I have not regretted it for one second and I am even considering doing it if the right opportunity comes along. This experience has only increased my thirst for travelling. I hope your search for a family goes well and that you have an amazing experince abroad!